The Path of Elder Maxson
by Video Game Fan Writer
Summary: This is story of how Arthur Maxson came into being the leader of the Brotherhood of Steel
1. Chapter 1

There something that need to be said or at least written down, I am not a legend, I'm still just a child. I'm sixteen and now beginning to understand that I could be sold into slavery. Many kids my age that I've known have already been kidnapped and sold into slavery, but not I. No, I am protected or at least worth saving or paying for the ransom, but my name is the only thing that is carrying weight these days. I'm getting close to the age where I can walk away from this family and frankly with all the infighting my organization has been doing, everything my fathers-fathers-fathers built, I have half a mind to let it all burn or a least walk away from it. Things have not gotten better, they've gotten worst, and even though our deeds have been written down in history we have gained a level of exclusivity that has dwindled our numbers after every battle, every attack, every ambush, and every incoming attack, everyone wants what we have and that's power armor. Every raider, every warlord, or tyrant has tried to kidnap members or kill members of the Brotherhood of Steel and learn the secrets of maneuvering them and if it wasn't for a zealous nature to our organization some of the members would have cracked. This was the main reason of our exclusivity, the reason why we only came out at night, among a few other things as well. Technology is dangerous, I do believe that, it's the reason why the world is what it is today radiation or radiation sickness within a few hours and cause: vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue, and a reduction in resistance to infection. Serious radiation sickness effects as in 100 to 200 rems; exposure is lethal to 10-35% of the population after 30 days.

Squires drill in the knowledge to us kids and that 30% of the worlds land mass is exposed to lethal amounts of radiation, 40% of is to non-lethal, leaving 30% so far that we know about with land that can be used for agriculture and those are the areas we are fighting for. Well us and every other warlord and government body seeing how the nuclear winter that followed the bomb dropping hasn't cleared up the lethal amounts of radiation. I suppose I should be glad that there are still people out there surviving all this, lawless as they may be. I never knew if the lessons I was taught about the outside world was meant to teach me about how to deal with the outside world or if it was meant to scare me into never wanting to leave. I have already been kidnapped, disfigured, and forced to lie about how I single handedly killed a deathclaw like the bullseye on my back couldn't get any bigger. I have two more years of living like this. Two more years until I am not longer being brought back after trying to leave, tracked down after being kidnapped, forced from beatings, or gunfire to step into the shoes of so called legends based off outdated beliefs. I would like to make my own legend like the Lone Wanderer but that time isn't now. No, right now another bunker has been compromised from another attack from raiders to trying to take power armor. We left out of secret passageway and blew up the raiders inside along with more than a dozen prisoners they kept alive and the paladins that are guarding me now don't have power armor. All to protect me and my lineage, the Maxson family name. My great great great great…. I forget how many greats it is, founded the Brotherhood of Steel but I'm the sole surviving ancestor of the founder of the Brotherhood of Steel, Rodger Maxson but what people don't seem to understand or know it was Rodger Maxson's security team that protected the researchers that developed the FEV the Forced Evolutionary Virus the virus that created the Super Mutant and several generations later we're still trying to clean up that mess. If Rodger had kept some of those scientists alive long enough they could have created an anti-virus that could have cured the Super Mutants of their conditions, maybe even improve on the virus's original purpose. To create humans that could survive lethal amounts of radiation. It's a little funny to me that it was at the expense of a Super Mutant that the Brotherhood of Steel earned their place is history.

Fawkes was a good person and a super mutant, but no one could ever know the truth, he left into exile, but I did get to speak to him briefly and I am somewhat disturbed by the number of Super Mutants the Brotherhood takes pride in killing. It was the Lone Wanderer's idea that people think that Sarah Lyon died in that reactor. So maybe she could have a normal life with the Lone Wander. I would see them both often enough and I use the term "the Lone Wanderer" because they always went by a different name and looks and the Lone Wanderer even passed for a woman a few times. I suppose I makes me a little jealous that my first crush found happiness with someone that wasn't me. Last time I spoke to them I asked about when they were going to have kids, hoping that they would eventually settled to an area under the protection of the Brotherhood but they said they were trying, but no luck. As of right now the Brotherhood can't protect anyone and being a member feels more like a prison sentence then a place of protection. Two more years, I must just keep telling myself that, maybe this is what happen to the grandparents that weren't written in archive maybe they just decided to leave, maybe I find Sarah and the Wanderer they'll probably know a great deal about hiding.

Well I seem to be learning quite a bit about that now, no bunker, no fortifications, just five people sleeping in four hour guard shifts around a campfire headed to California to work out a peace treaty with the New California Republic, there is a station in the Mojave Desert we were trying to touch base with but they've been at radio silence since we've escaped and there me sitting here with a paper and pencil losing more sleep then I should. The thought has crossed my mind to just make a run for it now but I can't help but feel a little curious about the NCR, they don't follow and beliefs we have and the uncompromising rules we follow and don't have the same zealous nature and beliefs. It seems like there trying to be what the Brotherhood stood for when Elder Owyn Lyon commanded the Brotherhood which was to help people, these day it feels like we're have plans to build wooden house when all we have are seeds, but I stand a better chance of getting to California with four armed soldiers then just a sole squire. I may like being with the NCR they might not have all the equipment we have but they do seem tough, but maybe it the uniforms, brown is a dark color but it doesn't attract heat like the black jumpsuits he have to wear.

If all else fails someone will find what I'm writing off my rotting corpse about how the sole heir of the Brotherhood of Steel feels about the whole thing altogether, but maybe I'll live out these next two years and throw this paper away, maybe it's cold night air that is making me feel bitter, maybe I still haven't gotten over the shock of other members of the Brotherhood dying in the last bunker I was in. None of them were friends but still, they were family on some level, but it does feel like I'm writing a will of some kind even though all I own is an empty pistol, a few caps, and a jumpsuit. I guess give my remains to Sarah Lyon the only woman I ever loved if you can find her.

Squire Arthur Maxson


	2. Chapter 2

We've been traveling at dawn and dust during midday we look for a shady area like a cave or abandoned building usually littered with drugged out or starved people or giant radiated animals or insects, dusk we start moving into west toward the sunset until we lose visibility and make camp for that night. We don't know if the men, women, and even children are bad people or not, but most of them are armed with loaded weapons and all of them have some kind supplies we need, I know they feel remorse but they were trained to shoot first when entering dark buildings or caves. I stayed outside and just listened to the sound of laser fire and told to shoot anyone that tries to come in in their back flank. I hear the term "raider" screamed out a lot in these caves and houses. I guess, in a lot of ways we are, but I know that raiders spare children and unarmed civilians and recruit them into their ranks or sell them into slavery. I know that because that's what they were trying to do a few days ago when they attacked our bunker and me and five unarmed Brotherhood of Steel Knights manage to escape and blow it all to hell.

Right now, we stack the bodies outside so they attract crows, other winged insects, and nearby mutated critters and that gives us more food. Depending on how hot it is the smell will still seep into the abandoned houses or caves where they died, and even as we carry the bodies the smell of shit stays in the building where our victims die. A lot of people in the Brotherhood of Steel have this power fantasy when hold on their rifles and talk about how they can move into an area and kill five or ten armed enemies in five to eight seconds, but what people don't understand is that one or two minutes later that room will start smelling like raw sewage center, and the heat does not help. It's always painful to see the children, but they always close their eyes when they died, looking somewhat peaceful, the adults will sometimes have a look on their eyes like they're trying to hold on to something there about to lose, some of them have a look to their face like they just got kicked in the gut or the nuts, and some of them do close their eyes. We carried them outside to be feasted on by the crows and wasteland critters. I carried the children because… they were lighter than the adults, some of them had guns, a lot some of them had grenades. You hear something heavy and metal fall on the ground while moving body you need to cover the grenade with him or her before it explodes, this has happened move then a few times. After you check all the pockets for supplies or weapons you place the victims' arms over their head and pull their shirt over their head if they are wearing one, if not leave them with their hands up until all the bodies have been searched once all the bodies have been searched that when we start moving them outside. I still remember when I was 12 years all having to do this kind of "clean-up" duty moving body parts from the ground to wagons because it was the humane thing to do. I threw up at the first signs of death and smells of decomposition, but after a while it was like picking up meat, before it was gross, and then I started seeing things on a logical since like how long a body might have been there or this or that person might have died.

This is not that though, the dead burnt with laser-fire and explosives some of which were family members fathers, mothers, elders, and children who's faces I still remember as I write these letters on the pages I realize that they were barely covered by leather clothing and bodies covered in strange makings. I have tried to look at this from a logically point of view, and yes, we need as many supplies as we can carry we need to eat and drink as much as we can if we are going to make it to Shady Sands, but I have no idea where we are or how far we need to walk.

Here's how this whole thing began, I came from Washington DC flying from base to base on Vertibirds, then I we walked a lot from bunker to bunker. Is hasn't been a straight shot from Washington DC to here I've lived in places and gone to school in curtain areas, but it has been hard to make friends over the years especially when kids my age find out who I am and what people think I might have done. I will admit I sometimes like the admiration from time to time especially when it came down to girls but when ask to prove what I've done I couldn't always pull through, it has made me a target for bullies, and almost completely unapproachable for normal kids. So, you could say since I was thirteen I've been kind of a quite kid. I don't want to confirm or deny anything because the truth is…. Well, I guess I'm writing for a reason I don't like being in the Brotherhood of Steel. I know I sound like a selfish rich kid when I say that, I know that a life in the wasteland could be so much worst but, I will start from the beginning because even I'm starting to think I may be a bit of a pretentious ass hat.

While I was there in Washington DC I was Sarah Lyon ward while my mother was away on missions, and I did a lot of studying about world history before the bombs dropped about all the great kings and queens of the past and learning about the great leaders that build their kingdoms and empires and the Art of War by Sun Tzu. My mother said my father died in honorable combat but it was too short because he wanted to be a warrior, so my mother tried very hard to make sure I was something of a diplomat, someone like Claudius 4th empire of Rome, someone that despite his sickly appearance and lack of experience, Claudius was an efficient administrator, an ambitious builder, and began a conquest of Britain. She said there are already enough people in Brotherhood of Steel that want to run everywhere gun blazing and a day after Elder Lyons funeral negotiations began about the future of the Brotherhood of Steel began and this was the first time in a long time I got to see my mother. She walked into our new fortifications at the Jefferson Memorial in full power armor picked me up and took offer her helmet relieving her short amber brown hair and piecing blue eyes, but it was to brief. She and so many would be elders walked in to debate about what would happen next, I spent the whole day listening to them bicker and argue about what they were going to do now that Elder Lyons was dead. Some people wanted to build a city, some people wanted to build a wall around all the purified water all the while desperate raiders and villagers came to drink nonradiated water. My mother wanted what all the people that took the Enclave wanted; a city that protected it citizens regardless of how useful or un-useful they were to the Brotherhood of Steel, but that could never happen. The raiders that attacked the only confirmed that the people of the wasteland were animals that needed to be put down and that mixing cultures would corrupt the Brotherhood of Steels core values. I wanted to walk in more than a few times, I pecked my head in a few times only to see my mother looking back at me as they argued. I remember trying to get Sarah to take the rank of Supreme Elder when her father started to fall ill, but she said, "There is no way that they will let a woman become the Supreme Elder."

As I sat there listening to tempers flare I started to believe she was right, my mother argued that she held the Maxson name and should take command, only to have it thrown back in her face that she was only married to my father for three years and she couldn't protect her husband. I had a meal with my mother for the first time in a long time and she asked if I could take up the throne of Supreme Elder at the age of eleven. I knew that there had been child Empires in China before and she said that she would be there to guide me along the way. It reminded me of the 5th Roman empire; Nero. Someone who took the throne at seventeen and sang as Rome was invaded as it burned, but that wasn't the disturbing part of Nero's story, it was that he killed his mother to keep his power. It might have made it easy for members of the senate to manipulate Nero from that point, also I wasn't completely sure that I did want to stay in the Brotherhood of Steel. I was a product of leadership education, not the drill and ceremony of listen, believe, and obey that so many soldiers were given and after talking to the Wanderer for so long about all the people he helped, I felt limited by the rules the Brotherhood of Steel had given me, she seemed happy to hear that but also disappointed. I suggested we go into exile like the Wanderer and Sarah… and I unfortunately relieved that Sarah didn't die in the reactor and my mother insisted that her voice was needed in the council, I refused and that made her angry. She smacked me with a belt like when I was five but I didn't tell her so she locked me in my room and told me I wasn't to leave until I was ready to tell her. I went to bed with tears in my eyes and I felt a pain in my head as I fell asleep, I didn't realize it at the time but I had died and my mother revived me. When I regained consciousness, I was outside and I saw my mother looking over me, she noticed the headache and put on her helmet and saw there were traces of chlorine gas in the air. A few members of the Brotherhood were around and some of higher ranked said that the water purifier must have leaked into our room, my mother didn't buy that, this was an assassination attempt. I was naive and didn't know anything about mechanics back then, maybe I wanted to put the whole thing behind me, and couldn't believe that members of the Brotherhood would try to kill each other, I think back on it now and I know that's what happen. I slept next to my mother that night with two guards at our door. The next morning my mother left in a jumpsuit and two people in power armor were escorting her, I guess she was trying to fit in with the rest of the Elders because she was in power armor the whole day the day before. She noticed I was shadowing her and she turned around bent down to my level and hugged me and said, "You look so much like your father Arthur, I need you to take good care of yourself from now on. I love you more than anything." I told her I loved her too I saw her nod at one of the men in power armor and I felt a shock sting me in the back of my neck and when I woke up I was on a vertibird heading to another base. I cried the whole trip to this new Brotherhood of Steel base, it's been years since that happen, I receive messages from terminals but I miss seeing her and hearing her voice, I hope someday I'll see her again.


	3. Chapter 3

The water here is clean, cleaner than any water I'm ever tasted but it was extremely cold, we had been walking through small valleys and mountains. I can see that during the winter the tops of the mountains must get snow and now it's melting into the river banks. Beautiful is the only word I have for it but it has made hunting a lot harder, most of the time while traveling through the wasteland every radiated animal will try to come at you at full spirit. I've seen this before a lot while on my patrols, mirelurks and giant insects will be feeding off the human bodies even going to so far to eat the marrow from the bones. Humans have become somewhat easy prey for the wasteland creatures and better tasting meal since most people don't have radiation swimming through there every fiber, but here the desert plants have created a few herbivores that the animals could eat. Most of the animals ran away from us when they saw us and that was odd to me. Geckos have always attacked with open mouths ready to bite on whatever then can get their teeth around but geckos were good to eat and their skin could be used to as water-skins but the geckos were drinking the water that fell off the mountain side and they ether didn't pay us any mind and ran away at first sight of us. These narrow pathways of rock, trees, plants, and dirt made traveling a lot harder as we had to climb on the side of mountains and cliffs, but it wasn't a place for to live. There were no flat areas where people could build a house or lay down a road, it was rough terrain that you need both your hand and your feet to get through, and one of the only times he traveled during the day seeing how we wanted to stay near the sound of the stream. It was easier because we had an unlimited amount of clean water so there was no fear of becoming dehydrated or radiated under the hot sun, but we usually come across more food when traveling in areas with more people and I think sooner or later we are going to come across a town where we won't have to "clear out" buildings but this area is nicer than most of the areas because while most of the food we had was either rotten or just things that weren't very appetizing, insect meat is not something that brightens you day so for the most part we all kind of fasted as we traveled but well this how at happened…

We were walking and we came this usually sound almost like a baby cry but a little higher pitched and louder, I never heard anything like it. Everyone stopped and smiled. I tried to ask what it was but they told me to shush. I saw our commander look around and look at all his men and he said, "Find it."

The men looked around the area where they heard the sound there were no signs of it, at least that what I thought. One of the men found traces of blood, "It must have fell here, I think it knows were looking for it."

I saw something from far away maybe about 50 yards away it was brown and moving on four legs but one of them had been injured I pointed at it, they shot, and it made its squeaking noise as it was shot, then it died. I asked, "What is that thing?"

"It's a boar, and it means were going to be eating good for the next few days." One of the soldiers said.

Well from that time we looked for a place that we could set up camp even though it was still a few hours until sunset we found an area of rock that was flat enough to set up a camp fire, I usually did this. I usually started the fires with flint stones, a stick and tree bark, or two sticks and string. I was in the process of clicking to stones together and someone shot the area with all the brush and it took flame but I got hit with some of the rocks that flew up as the energy beam made impact. "What the hell, you could have given me a warning."

"This way is faster; besides I'm starving, are you going to cook that boar?" He said.

"I've never even see an animal like that before, how am I supposed to cook it?" I asked

"It's just the same a gecko meat, but it will go bad fast so try to cure half of it with salt." He explained.

"Yes sir." I said and saluted.

He rolled his eyes, "How did you learn how to do all this Maxson?"

"Raiders." I answered, I saw the two of them give me a look of surprise, "Uh," I put my hand on the back of my head, "I mean, VR training of course."

He crossed his arms and looked at me skeptically, "I've been through a few of those, I've never seen a survival simulator, and don't you have to be at least a knight to use one of those simulators?" He asked.

"They have some for scribes too on other post." I answered.

"I could believe that if you didn't just say 'raiders'." He stopped for a second, "I heard that you when you were twelve you killed a group of raiders that attacked your platoon while they were asleep."

I looked away and looked at the boar he was holding, "I'm going to need to gut that thing before I cook it, so can you hand it over here." I said trying to avoid the statement.

He handed it to me and I snatched it away, "Who the hell do you think you are anyways?" I said under my breath as I removed the intestines from the boar.

"What was that Squire?!" he bent down to my level as I was on all four with the knife. He was a tall black kid probably only a year past 18 years of age, but a Knight of the Brotherhood of Steel, which meant he outranked me.

"I said, sir. Who do you think you are, I'm Arthur Maxson, you may out rank me but I'm the mission, you may not understand this but to some people I'm a god, and I'm the only reason you even made it out of that bunker alive."

He hit me on the side of my cheek breaking off some of the stitches in my face and I felt a little bit of blood go into the inside of my mouth, "YOU'RE REASON THE OUTCAST ARE ATTACKING US?!" He stood over me grabbed me by the collar of my jumpsuit, "If it wasn't for you my brothers would still be alive! Now here I am playing babysitter to a spoiled little prince. Hearing all the great things you've done, a natural leader that could more than pull his own weight. Arthur Maxson you don't deserve to even stand in the shadow of your father name."

He forgot I still had a knife, I heard I our commander come and I was about to stab him in the kidney but I took the knife away from me, "Jesus, Kells get the hell off him!" He did as he was told but, "and you, I must be an idiot to be surprised." He gestured toward me as I was on the ground. I held on to the side of my face were my scar was torn, "He was going to kill you Kells." He held up the knife.

"Would you?" Kells asked.

I looked away, "Maxson has pulled this kind of stunt before, tried to get your whole squad killed by teaming up with a few raiders?" Our commander explained.

"I wanted to go home." I said.

"Hold on, Paladin Womack, I heard…" Kells said but was interrupted by Womack.

"You heard lies, Knight, we thought Maxson would come around sooner or later if people thought he was this natural leader, but only a few of us knew the truth."

"What is the truth?" Kells asked.

"He's just a kid running to his mother." Womack stated.

Kells looked at me with simplify in his eyes, "I lost my mother a few weeks ago, you have my condolences."

"My mother isn't DEAD!" I shouted. I went back to skinning the boar it didn't feel like the leathery gecko skin that I was used to and I there were small pieces of it left.

"You can cook with some of the skin still on their Arthur." Kells suggested.

"Do you want to take over?" I looked over and asked.

"Yeah, I'll take it from here." Kells cut the legs of the skinned pig and place it on the hot flat rocks, "So why haven't you tried to run since we've been traveling together?" He asked.

"Find the enemy of my enemy and you will find yourself a friend." I answered.

"The NCR, you think they really help us fight the Outcast?" Kells answered.

"It's a little more complicated than that." Womack explained, "The NCR have a standoff with Cesar's Legion at New Vegas, and both want to take New Vegas for themselves."

"So, what does that mean for the Brotherhood of Steel?" Kells asked.

"Well the mission in the Mohave desert was to take HELIOS One, a weapon that uses the power of the sun to rain down laser energy on almost anything, kind of like an artillery cannon. With a weapon like that my guess is that we would start a hit and run missions until we took New Vegas for ourselves but it was a complete failure at HELIOS One and we we're forced to retreat thanks to the NCR." Womack explained.

"So, if the NCR has a weapon like that why don't they use it against the Legion." I asked.

Womack rolled his eyes, "Because nobody in the NCR knows how to use it."

Me, and Kells started laughing, the other two soldiers showed up with a pile of firewood and dropped it the campsite, "What so funny?" they asked.

"Come men, I think it's about time I gave you all a detailed layout of our mission since we got some time now." Womack explained.

Kells handed Womack a charred leg of the boar holding onto the leg stabbing the other side with a knife, he took a bite of it, "This is good." He said.

I mouth was watering when the smell hit me, it was almost like it was seasoned with a thin layer of honey, Kells put another leg down on the hot stone next to the fire and Paladin Womack handed me the leg of the boar. I grabbed it by the leg and the knife he stuck in it and took a bite of it, it was a sweeter meat then anything I've ever tasted, maybe it was because it was alive only a few hours ago but, I handed the leg to the other soldiers that brought the firewood. "So, as it goes in New Vegas there was supposed to be a battle on Hoover Dam and the Brotherhoods mission at that point was wait until ether side won, knowing full well the resources it would take to beat one side, and then take our chances then to take Helios One."

"Is that still the mission? I mean if we touched base with the members there we could beat back the Outcast, without the need of the NCR." Kells stated.

"I don't know… Well, we don't know, because we stop receiving information from Hidden Bunker. We've lost all receiving communication from that area. We had a flood of information when we recruited a new member into the Brotherhood of Steel there. Detailed information about the Caesars Legion, the NCR, and Mr. House."

"Who's Mr. House?" I asked.

Womack took a deep breath, "He's the man that runs New Vegas and keeps order there with his army of securitrons, a kind of armored robot with advanced AI functions that can do anything from identify dangerous targets to have a conversation at dinner time. We're not sure if it's true AI but Mr. House is the one that is controlling them and seems to be the man in control."

"How?" Kells asked.

Paladin Womack shrugged, "Technology."

"Do you think maybe someone might have killed the members in the bunker, like the new member might have sold them out?"

"If that were the case they would have destroyed the whole bunker like the one we were in and we would have known about that, but it's still there, intact. There were some minor reports about a computer virus that invaded the system, I think it might have knocked out there communication."

"Well I can fix that." One of the soldiers said.

"I know you can Wagner, I'm glad you made it out."

All of us just looked into the fire for a few minutes, we ate and it was the best meal we've had in the past few weeks, but there was phase that kept ringing in my head and I think it must have been ringing the others heads too, "Technology is dangerous.". While I was writing this Kells asked me that I needed laid all my cards down sooner or later. I suppose I will and then I'll write about it.


	4. Chapter 4

'To some people I'm a god', those were the words I said yesterday, and in response for the first time someone in the Brotherhood of Steel hit me and I felt I deserved it. Well now that I think about it's not, but most of the beatdowns I've had were not because I felt I deserved. Well it isn't the first time I got my ass kicked for something I deserved, but I think back on that time now I was bitter for months, and I think back on then and when put myself in their shoes I would have kicked my ass too, but I don't think I would have ganged up and beaten down a twelve-year-old kid in full power armor. Oh right, someone might read this, I guess if I was just writing to myself I would remember that ass whooping I got back then. I talked a lot while traveling for a change, Kells wanted to know what really happened on the day I killed a pack of raiders when I was twelve and the truth of the matter was I wanted to be a raider…

I had hatred in my heart for raiders back then, but there was a fear and hatred I felt. To me they were monsters, skulking in the shadows, a fiend to scare children with. A creature to be hunted down and slaughtered like a beast in the fields. It was this time I wanted to heed to the beast and see the beast for myself. I was afraid, but they had earned my respect. It was not the best of decisions, but I am thankful for that time, as a boy, that was willing to take up arms. Thankful to the raiders.

I began to tell Kells and the others about how I was taken away from my mother or she sent me away. I've was able to talk to her on terminal computers, but I was never sure if who I was speaking to on the other side was actually my mother. I didn't know at the time what I said to my mother would be reread by scribes and elders and I would be confronted about it. I was told that maybe I should be grateful for what I do have and how good things are going. They would say, "Your mother is dealing with some hard times and she can't worry that her son might not be getting taken care of."

My messages to her would not change much but I would open with everything I was grateful for but I would continue the lines of concerns and problems I had at the new base and then I got messages back…

Well, my mother is a Head Paladin of usually most of the bases she has gone to, but she not a scribe. She retypes words, not huge on comas, and sometimes misuses "there's" and "than" 's, so when I would receive a message back and there were no grammar errors, I knew that it wasn't from her. I never told anyone at the Brotherhood of Steel bases that I knew that, and it was strange to me that I was talking about these things with my squad.

They said, "Maybe your mom became a better writer as she was working to try to become the Supreme Elder." But my mother wasn't always optimistic about her situation as well, she would tell me that she missed me and she felt terrible about not being able to see me grow up but what she was doing was securing the future for the Brotherhood of Steel. The messages I got that were perfectly edited were a bit more nagging of, I need to listen to my superiors' type of talk.

So, after a month or two I would stop sending messages. It always changed then I was at a new base or found some way to get on a terminal that wasn't connected to a Brotherhood of Steel server. Sometimes someone would pick up the massage and threaten to air strike the area I was in. So, finding terminals and moving them to one area that was high enough to reach my mother base was somewhat of a challenge. One day I was up on a high spot with my terminal I carried from an office and connected to a portable satellite dish and generator. While I was typing I heard someone lock back a slide release on a handgun. I didn't hear her coming because when people from the Brotherhood of Steel came looking for me I could hear their Power Armor coming from a mile away. I usually sneaked back to base before they realized I had been gone. Well, they knew I was gone, they just could never find me in the act outside the base.

This was not one of those times those times though, "Are you here to take me back home?" I asked, thinking that maybe someone had the balls to leave the base without power armor.

"Ool the hew are you dustbin lid and what the hew do you ink you doing on top of me building?" She asked, her voice was something strange like something out of a holodisk type, I didn't know it at the time but it was an English accent, but way harder to understand. I'm not going to write about all the times I asked her what she was saying or what she meant because I must of asked her a hundred times what that means even though she told me more than twice about what she was actually trying to saying.

I looked behind me and I saw her tan face and blonde hair. Her hair was mostly shaven aside from a side part that came down on the side of her face, she had blue eyes, and seem to be late teens. She seems like a grown-up to me, at the time though, but she wasn't. I remember when I was telling this story to the squad they asked what she was wearing and well…

She was wearing a sports bra, covered by a short one sleeved leather jacket poked with spikes and steel buttons on the side that had the sleeve. The other side over of her arm was covered in bandages and duct tape. She wasn't wearing pants, just black underwear, some torn panty-hoes, covered by steel shin-guards and silver steel-toe boots. She was wearing a belt around her wide hips, at held most of her equipment; a gun holster and pouches to carry water or ammunition. All her mid-section was exposed showing off her tight abs. The guys were pretty excited about that, they talked how they would have hated to kill somebody like that. I may have stared at her longer then I should have, it was just that I had never see a woman in that light before. She must have noticed my eyes because she asked if I ever seen a woman before and put the gun to my head and said, "Now if you were any other bloke I'd would 'ave soot ya brown bread as soon as I saw ya, but since you's a dustbin lid I add to see wat you were up to. Now wat are you doing on that custard and jelly? Cha uh mean?" 'brown bread' = 'dead', 'dustbin lid' = 'kid', 'custard and jelly' = 'television', and 'Cha un mean' = 'Do you know what I mean'. I shook my head, no.

I still remember what most of those words mean and from time to time I still use them, Paladin Womack suggested that we speak like so we can speak more tactical, but that was the reason why the raiders talked like that first place, so no one would understand what they meant or would think that they were talking about something else. So, raiders would understand what we were saying, if we did understand.

So, three minutes of translating later, I told her that I was trying to send a message to my mother. She asked why a kid would come into a place so dangerous and that I need to go home but not before making me hand over my handheld gas generator and portable satellite dish. But before she left I asked her if she was a raider.

She looked back and faced me, "No, I'm an apple bobber, wen I need to be." She said as she held up my portable satellite dish.

"Does that mean robber?" I asked.

She smiled, "Now you're getting it, go 'ome kid, I'm sure your parents are worried about you."

"She is, and you just took away the only way I could talk to her." I guilt tripped her, she sighed, shook her head, and threw the satellite dish back and generator back at me. I thanked her and ran down the stairs that was behind her. When I was down stairs she called me, "Ooh, kid." I looked up at her with the light that was gleaming in the door, "Wat your name?"

"It's Arthur." I answered.

"Like the king on one of them knights of the round table stories?" she asked.

I smiled, "Yep, that who I was named after."

"My name is Sugar. Now get off of 'ere Arfah… Ar-thur." She tried to get the 'thu' sound right. I sneaked as quietly as I could but I tell she was shadowing me. When I was at the Brotherhood base I saw laying on her stomach looking at me from binoculars about two hundred yards away from a high hill in the wasteland. I waved to her and I saw her hide away. I thought at the time she was just trying to see if I got home safely. But that wasn't the case. For most of the days after I thought about Sugar and that funny accent she had, what it would be like to kiss her and have sex with her, I mean there were girls in this fort that were my age but they wore draggy robes or leathery jumpsuits. I guess I had never thought to consider the girl's showers or bathrooms, but the thought was crossing my mind more as I sat in the middle of class. I thought about the good things that might happen between me and Sugar. I remember she was only a few inches shorter me and I knew that I would hit a growth spurt sooner or later. I also knew I would get in trouble a lot of trouble and if I did something like try to sneak in somewhere I shouldn't, like; the girl's dormitory. Even if I did get to see some of my classmates naked, that wouldn't mean that I would get to do the things I wanted to do with Sugar. They were young and undeveloped, but then again, so was I, but I didn't care. Sugar was a woman that hunted my fantasies and she didn't treat me like a child, at least she didn't in my fantasies. I got a message from my mother, a real message, and she was wondering why I haven't messaged her in so long and why my last message was cut off in the middle. I had been in a better mood at the time so I started to write out how I was doing and how I felt at the time, but I wanted to talk about Sugar tell my mom about her, but I knew these messages were being reread and I wanted to tell the truth for a change about what I thought my superiors had been doing with my messages.

So, I traveled to the same spot in the dead of night while mostly everyone was asleep, I remember it was colder then and there were a few gun shots I heard from far away, but I went back to the place I set up the monitor and met Sugar but without carrying it up there. Just like all my fantasies there she was asleep with a blanket over her body on the place we first met. I looked at her so peaceful and beautiful and while she was asleep and I kissed her on the lips. She opened her eyes and she smiled back at me, but then all of a sudden she grabbed me a threw me to the floor and then injected something in my neck. Before I passed out I saw her shoot a flare gun in the air.

I woke when someone threw water on me, Sugar and another raider with a knife in his hand was pointing it at me, I was facing a fire and tied to a chair. "Wake up little tin man." He said. "Now Sugar knew that you would come back to that place, but she didn't tell me you had the hots for her. What were you planning on doing?" He continued.

I was scared at the time, "I didn't know she was your wife, I'm sorry." I pleaded.

The raider laughed, "Wife, please little tin man! I can't understand a word this woman says." He grabbed the back of my hair, tilted the chair back on two legs, and put the knife tip at my throat, "Now I'll ask you again Arthur, what were you planning on doing to Sugar." I looked over at her, her arms were cross defensively with a sour look on her face, but I looked at her whole frame illuminated by the fire, I couldn't think of anything to say even with a knife to my throat, but he pulled on my hair again, "Did you want to fuck her?" he demanded. He looked in my eyes with a fake sad look on his face shaking his head slightly yes and no. "Is this heartbreaking for you Arthur?"

I nodded my head.

"Oh for fucks sake Pockets just 'old him ransom let be done with this!" Sugar demanded she pulled out a knife holding on to my pinky finger, "If we send em back in pieces we'll get our bees and 'unnee." 'Money', she was about to cut off my pinky finger and Pockets gave her a slap of the side of her face to was so hard she fell on the ground. She looked up at him and held the side of her face with a look of disbelief in her eyes. He sat on my lap.

"That was the plan," Pockets smiled as he held the knife cleaning his fingernails with the tip, he sighed, and shook his head, "but when I heard you stole a kiss from Sugar. I wondered… We're raiders and we rape and pillage. So I'll ask one more time, did you want to fuck her?" he touched the tip of the blade to my noise.

I looked at her laying there, I thought about how she tricked me, followed me, kidnapped me, and tried to cut me into pieces. I saw her look back at me, her half naked body and thought about shoving her face into the ground while I force my way inside her giving no thought or concern on how unconformable or painful it might be for her. I nodded my head.

Pockets got up off me and had this look of joy on his face and stood up, "How old are you Arthur?"

I looked back him with fear this time and mouthed out the number 13 which wasn't true, it was going to in a month, but it's not like he understood me anyways.

"It doesn't matter," He laughed. He cut the lower part of my jumpsuit reached into my underpants and pulled out some of my pubic hair, I screamed from the pain, but he took what he could grab and threw it on the fire screaming, "Yes, yes, yes! Fucking man we got here!" he laughed and ran around the fire and then, he started singing, and a little bit latter Sugar join in the song as well.

 _Oh we'll rant and we'll roar like true wasteland raiders_

 _We'll rant and we'll roar for all that we be_

 _We'll march back from yonder all laden with plunder_

 _Oh what treasures, what pleasures, then you will see_

 _Farewell and good-bye to you fair bitch ladies_

 _Farewell and good-bye, you ladies of fame_

 _We've taken a liking to mayhem and fighting_

 _Our guns we will bring down and blast 'em again._

 _We'll burn and we'll plunder and then we will sunder_

 _Their heads from their necks and their caps from their purse_

 _We'll meet them in battle and kill them like cattle_

 _We'll drink their beer dry while the old bastards curse_

 _The first lands we sighted we saw a tall spire_

 _We crept up in darkness and set it aflame_

 _We're cruel and were callous for we bear with such malice_

 _And we hope that next year they will be there again_

 _We found a fat farmer, we found his fair daughter_

 _We tickled him up with, a point of a knife_

 _He babbled and gabbled, gave caps without haggle_

 _The girl ran off screaming so we roasted his wife_

 _Now let every true raider take up his full tankard_

 _Now let every true raider drink deep of strong ale_

 _Our war cries take first points will skewer 'em like pork joints_

 _Far richer and fatter the raiders prevail!_

I wanted to clap but I was still tied up, all the singing, dancing, and throwing the bottles of flammable liquids into the fire. The Brotherhood of Steel has rules, values, creeds, but not songs, I knew that even if every person united under this war song it would still not be enough to take on the Brotherhood. I asked if they could let me go.

Now, right then, and their, Paladin Womack stopped the whole squad and looked at me while I was telling this story. "Are you bullshitting me, Arthur?"

I looked at him inquisitively, "Why would I be lying, I told you guys that I would tell you the truth about what happen."

Paladin Womack let out a sigh, "Because Arthur, we soldiers and soldiers 'grab ass'." Which means mess around playfully in a sexual way, but not gay, just, I don't know how to explain it. We crack jokes about sex and kind of insult each other's manhood. Like he was saying, "I've been thinking, maybe, Arthur's heard some stories from one of the Knights, guys lie about their sexual exploits all the time, maybe Arthur is just trying to impress us by telling us a story that will make our dicks hard."

I didn't know what to say at the time, but I had heard guys gather around in groups and tell sex stories on most military bases about how they lost their virginity. I remembered after class, boys talked about things that happen on other post, other schools, and it seemed tame compared to the story I was telling, but I just stood there looking at the ground as he looked me square in the eyes. "So, did you do anything with Sugar?" he asked.

"What?" Feeling embarrassed to myself. I looked him in the eyes, his face red and his gaze was piercing into the fabric of my being, making me feel even more uncomfortable.

"Did you have sexual intercourse with Sugar!" He screamed.

"Yes. But it was…"

"No, no, no, I didn't ask you for details Arthur, because regardless of how you feel about it, or what you tell yourself to save your own pride, it was rape! If someone put a gun to your head and told you to fuck a child, would you?!" He demanded, and I felt like I was tied to the chair again.

"Of course not." I answered.

"What if the man with a gun showed you both pornographic holotypes and said, 'Hey doesn't this look like fun, don't you kids what to try this'. " There was a smile in the sentence, but it went back to fierce look when he was waiting for a answer. The thing about it was, he wasn't far off from the truth, Pockets watched us as we, while they… raped me, and I tell myself, I've told myself, that it was something I wanted to do back then, but I did it because he told me too, and if I had said 'no' to Pockets questions he might have sent me back in pieces. I just shook my head, no.

"So, if this situation happens with two adults and a child who is the victim of this situation?" Womack asked.

"The child." I answered.

"And who else?." He asked.

"I guess the one without the gun, the one having sex with the child."

"You've walked with us and told me about this song he sang about killing, stealing, and raping, and how you wished the Brotherhood of Steel were more like raiders. How you wanted to clap your hands." Wormack clapped his hands, "Don't you ever put a rapist in a positive light again, do you understand me, Arthur! They are the worst kinds of human beings imaginable, I know you don't like that we've had to kill women and children these past few weeks, we don't like it either, but we don't rape our victims, or try to turn them into rapist with us, that where I, we, draw the line."

"Ad Victoriam!" The whole squad said in unison, that word meant a lot of things, but mostly it meant 'To Victory'.

Womack ordered that we make camp at that moment, he usually helped set the cooking stones or gathered firewood but at the time he just sat on the ground looking over at me every few minutes. When I met his gaze, he looked down and shook his head. I started writing about what had happened today like I am right now, but Paladin Womack called me over and asked what I was writing about. I said, "At first my feelings about the Brotherhood of Steel, not the good feelings, how I wanted to leave, but now, just everything that's has been going on so far."

Womack nodded his head, "Good, not everything about the Brotherhood of Steel is puppies and rainbows, especially now. For what it's worth, I'm sorry about what happened, the whole rape thing. Kids are supposed to come into these things slowly, even if they are having fantasies about older women. But you know it wouldn't be a terrible thing if people knew the truth about the Brotherhood of Steel, it's not for everybody. There's a saying that a commander can lead his troops into battle, he can point at the enemy he wants to destroy, he can make them aim, make them take their weapons off safe, but he can't make them pull that trigger."

"What doesn't that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"It means we pull that trigger because were family, and we look out for one another, we protect one another, that why we pull that trigger, and there are more people in this world that care about you then just your mother." He continued.

"Do family members usually try to kill one another with chlorine gas to gain positions of power?" I asked.

Womack looked at me and raised one eyebrow, "Go on."

"I may have wanted to be a raider, they used me, abused me, raped me, and for a time they got me addicted to chems and alcohol, but it was better than running away all the time, or pretending like nothing bad was coming for me. I know that the Outcast are looking for me. With the raiders, it felt like I at least had a fighting chance to save my mother from the Outcast. Kells asked me what happened that night when I supposedly killed a group of raiders when I was 12; the truth of the matter was I told them about water purifier at the Jefferson Memorial and a way they could lock all the doors and reroute the water supply drowning everyone on the lower level, but a plan wasn't good enough. They wanted more, more than just pockets full of meds and pre-war junk, I needed to lead them in battle against the Brotherhood of Steel if I was going to lead them to Washington, so we could fight them there."

Womack had blank look on his face, he just nodded, "You had a plan I take it."

I didn't want to revel in it, but I was proud at the time, "They dressed me up, like a raider, put makeup and war paint on me, cut my hair into a mohawk, and hopped me up on jet and psycho. My plan was to put a C4 bomb on a vertibird engine it worked, I knew that my men didn't have any weapons that could break power armor, but I was hoping the fall would do the job. From there my team would have take all the weapons that were there, and wait for the recon team to retrieve all the lost technology, and then ambush them with the weapons from the crash."

Womack half smiled, "I guess you didn't know that power armor can save an operator from a six-story fall from the air."

I looked down and recalled the thought, "We still attacked with what weapons we had and they all died, Pockets, Snerdles, Lava, Orc-face, Pelon, Fish, Mouse, Eggs, Pookie, and Sugar. They all died, I've never cried once when one of you died… you always said, 'there was that there was no greater honor then a death on the battlefield' and maybe you believe that, but there's not. I must have come to my senses because, I ran high on drugs, but the members of the Brotherhood were able to catch me. They even knew who I was even though I was dressed as a raider."

"They should have killed you." Womack shook his head.

I was crying when I was telling this story, "They lost one pilot! ONE! They took me to each and everyone their corpses and made me look their faces, Sugar wasn't even died when they took me to her, she called my name right before they killed her! Then they beat me with an inch on my life, in full power armor! A twelve-year-old kid, the four of them couldn't even take off their helmets so I could see their faces! That wasn't even the worst part, they could have flushed out my system to remove the drugs, but they let me suffer from withdraw with nothing but a blanket, restraints, and a daily stim-pack to keep me from starving to death. Then put me on suicide watch for a little while, then they transferred me to an underground bunker so I couldn't escape again, told everyone that I killed the raiders in the middle of the night, like I was some kind of hero, but I've too scared to deny it."

"That was your own fault, but it wasn't right." Womack stated.

"Did you ever try to tell anyone else?" Kells added and he touched my back.

"I saw therapist two times a week, I told them about them Deathclaw too, I still drink alcohol when I can find it, few people bat an eyelash to that." I stated.

"Well hopefully your Deathclaw story will be little bit less sobbie." Womack said and he laid down to go to sleep.

"I'm sorry Paladin, 'Sobbie' " Kells questioned.

Womack leaned to the side from his back and looked at Kells, "Yeah Kells, sobbie, sad, pathetic, you can join in Arthur's pity party if you want to, and he has every right to be upset." Womack leaned forward and looked at me, "but if I were in that vertibird I would have killed you, I don't care if you're the Maxson's only surviving heir or the Supreme Elder, you betrayed your brothers, sided with the raiders, and instead of killing you they tried fix you. Showed you how stupid it was to side with raiders, they beat the shit out of you, and the withdraw…" He shook his head, "Let just say I've seen people waste their whole lives on chems. They have no place in a functioning military, you stole from and you killed your brothers Arthur… You think with an army of raiders you could have taken back Protect Purity. I've fought Enclave members, I've fought Brotherhood Outcast, they wouldn't have had to balls last three seconds in a firefight with them." Womack breathed in deep and shook his head then he made a sudden jolt with fist like he was going to hit me, it made me flitch and cover myself in defense. He laughed, "Come on, I'm not going to kill you Arthur. You're the reason this whole mission taking place, you're a bargaining chip, and were taking you to New Vegas, there a kind of funny irony there. Kells you take first guard shift, change out every two hours, wake me up O' six hundred, we stay here until Arthur is done sleeping." Womack laid down to go to sleep.

"We're not leaving at six." Wagner asked.

"No, I think Arthur needs some time to write, make sure you write down everything I said to you right now, okay." Womack put up his thumb.

I nodded, but before I put pen to paper again I said to Womack, "Paladin, " He looked up a me, laying on his back, "Everything you just said to me I've already said to myself a long time ago. I'm sorry about being emotional about my raider friends, but I don't need special treatment."

Womack scoffed, "Good, maybe there hope for you after all, Maxson." That was the first time he called me but my last name.


	5. Chapter 5

Womack, Kells, Wagner, and Nicholls, and me, Maxson. Five of us out in the wilderness, it was easy when we were dealing with the flat lands of the wasteland and we saw a person or a building every now and then, we would travel west facing the sun during the dusk and the sun on our backs when it was dawn, but I'm starting to think Paladin Womack might not know where he is or where he's going. While we have lot of food and clean water to drink and have come across clean water to bathe in. Lately the streams have been drying up and there has been just enough to fill up our canteens and water bottles. I had to ask Kells if we knew where we were going, because the heat was taking a lot of our energy to just keep marching, "Paladin, do you know where were going?" Kells asked.

Womack looked down at him from the top of a mountain where we were climbing, he looked tired as well, but he was trying to hide it, "We keep heading west until we reach California or New Vegas if we make it to the coast we'll know were in California, we'll follow the coast south until we reach Shady Sands." Womack took a deep breath and sat down on a rock, "Admittedly I've been trying to follow the streams south, it seems too good of a blessing to past up. Once we hit the 15 freeway we're going to need to be on high alert but it will be a straight shot to New Vegas. Come on men we still got a lot of ground to cover."

"Were low on ammo." Kells compained, "and can we please change out of these black jumpsuits?"

"Do you have a problem with your uniform soldier?" Womack questioned.

"I'm not saying I dislike them, but that sun is beating us down and these jumpsuits aren't helping."

"That jumpsuit will protect you in a radiation storm or whatever radioactive materials you come across, melted lead fibers were sewn into the fabric, that why it's black. We don't wear them because we think there stylish." Womack said with a sarcastic grin on his face. That was something I didn't know, but I had changed out of these clothes before so I wouldn't be spotted on sight, but these weren't the harshest wilderness I've ever been in. I wish I knew the location of every single base and bunker I stayed in but I don't, there was a question that had been bothering me though and I had to ask, "Who or what, is Caesar Legion?" I asked Paladin Womack.

Womack looked me like I just asked to eat his own shit, "You don't get to ask me that, after that shit you pulled Pope Air Force Base." He was talking about the raider situation.

"He's the bad guy Maxson, you see guys wearing roman empire style armor, you shoot or you run." Kells stated.

"He's the reason why we've had to kill so many women and child these past few weeks." Nicholls added in. "It's the main reason why so many people in our bunker choose to die then travel west into their territory. If they find us they won't just kill us. Womack promised Elder Morgan to eat bullet if he was caught, as for us, me and Wagner we're initiates, Kells just made Knight a few months ago." Nicholls continued to walk forward.

Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, I wondered why I was with a bunch of low ranked Brotherhood of Steel members and not a collection of elite like when I was usually being escorted. They were with me because they didn't know anything, and couldn't give anything to Caesar's Legion. "And what about me." A flood of locations, a flood of background histories of the Brotherhood, a flood knowledge of gossip and weak points of military bases and chains of command. He continued to walk forward, he looked back at me and shrugged.

"You need to keep your goddamn mouth shut from now on, Nicholls." Womack ordered as he slapped him on the back of the head.

"I haven't said anything since we left the bunker, is it really fair that you and Maxson are the only ones that get to talk." He said as he continued to walk ignoring the slap on his head.

"It's always the quite ones." Womack said under his breath, shaking his head.

I got in Womack's face like he did with me yesterday, "So are going to kill me?"

He had that fierce look in his face again but I wasn't going to flinch or show any signs of weakness, "You don't get to ask me those kinds of questions, Maxson."

I laughed I saw Nicholls point his rifle at me, "Are we going to have a problem?" he said.

Womack looked over at him, "Nicholls no, this is between me and Maxson."

"Come on Maxson, just give me a reason to end you, how you did you say it before? 'Brown Bread' you, your English accent is awful by the way." Nicholls commented and 'brown bread' means dead, his sentence didn't make since.

"I said put the rifle down Nicholls." Womack ordered.

Kells put his rifle behind Nicholls's head, "He said put it down Nicholls."

He lowered it, "Oh come on, you must see how stupid this is. If Arthur Maxson is dead we all get to go home."

"Our home gone Nicholls." Wagner stated, "We all we got."

"We can find another bunker, we can find another base, and just live out our days building and finding shiny new tech. Who gives a crap about Maxson's lineage anyways, our mission has always been to find tech so we can survive." Nicholls continued.

"Wow that sounds really familiar," Womack stated.

"Yeah, I think I've heard that kind of talk too." I said, me and Womack weren't facing each other anymore.

"Kells can you take Nicholls weapon, if you'd be so kind." Womack asked.

"Sure thing, paladin." Kells did as he was ordered, Nicholls just looked surprised and shocked at everyone around him.

"Now throw it to Maxson." He threw it to me and it was heavier that most of the energy rifles I held. I pulled back the charging handle, removed the battery, vented the cooling unit, when put back the battery, and locked in the charging handle into place. "You modded this." I stated.

"There's nothing wrong with modding your equipment. Are you REALLY giving my weapon to this traitor!?" He pointed at me.

"Yep, now get moving." Kells pushed Nicholls from the back.

"Wait a second, Paladin. Maxson betrayed the Brotherhood of Steel." Nicholls protested.

"He did. You got a lot of nerve saying that though, you just betrayed the Brotherhood."

"I didn't kill anyone, I didn't steal anything!" Nicholls objected.

Womack grabbed Nicholls by the collar of his jumpsuit, "You were going to, and what for? A soft bed, three meals a day, and people in shiny power armor to protect you."

"At least I didn't side with filthy fucking raiders!" Nicholls spit in Womack's face as he yelled. I don't want came over me, I just remembered all their faces all at once. Seeing them alive and then seeing them dead, I was going to beat Nicholls with the butt of his weapon, but Womack caught it.

"Maxson, calm down." My grip on the weapon didn't loosen, I grunted to pull it free from his grasp, but he was strong as an ox, he could tell I was upset about what Nicholls had just said. "You need to calm down. Did you love her. Sugar I mean, I never asked you." I calmed down and I recalled the way she walked, talked, joked around, and laughed. There was a lot time we spent together just hanging out and not just with her. Pockets was a asshole, but the rest of them were still good people and I nodded. "Love will make you do some stupid things. What's you excuse Nicholls." He explained.

"Yall should keep your distance for a few days, until things calm down. It's this heat I'm telling you, it makes the red blood burn." Kells stated.

Nighttime fell and even though I'm glad Paladin Womack can trust me with a weapon, he did answer one of my questions; is he going to kill me? He said that he was given orders to kill me if we were captured by Caesar's Legion but he's not going to. He said he's not going to because I'm too damn stubborn to crack. When I asked about the Caesar's Legion he said it was better that I don't know because he needs us to not be afraid when the time came. He said "If I did tell you what they are, and what they do, it will give you nightmares." I asked him if he was scared, he took a deep breath, looked away, and said, "I'm terrified."


	6. Chapter 6

Last night I told Nicholls and Wagner the story of how I killed a Deathclaw and got this scar on my face. It isn't complete bullshit of what they heard but it wasn't surprising that when I was captured again members of the Brotherhood they would fabricate a story to cover their own asses. The truth of it is I didn't kill the Deathclaw other members of the Brotherhood of Steel killed her, but of course there more to that story then just that. While I was living in underground bunkers people sometimes set out a red carpet for me, so to speak. I would be forced to tell stories to members of a new class room about the things I supposedly did in the wasteland and I always told a different story. Sometimes I infiltrated the raiders, sometimes I hid in the shadows in perfect camouflage and attained detailed information about when they would attack, sometimes I would tell people I was just in the right place in the right time and just started shooting my gun, but I always told my therapist the truth and even though he or she was sworn to secrecy very rarely did they keep that information from the stationed elders. Elders came down to head paladins and head scribes and then the strange looks would start from my instructors. They couldn't deny my knowledge though. Nicholls asked me if I did well on test. I only did well on history test because of my mother and Paladin Sarah Lyon had drilled those lesson into me, but mostly everything else I was not great at. Not because I didn't know them, but I rarely paid attention in class, but I got smart from doing projects, classwork, and outside classwork.

"What kind of projects?" Wagner asked.

Mostly projects involving chems, alcohol, and explosives.

"You were a chems dealer." Nicholls stated.

It didn't always start off that way, some of those chems would stink up a whole bunker. Miss mixing Brahmin shit could kill a man or most likely put them in the medical bay for a week, while some of my raider friends were good at that. Sugar only taught me how to use an open flame to make things like food, armor, alcohol, and chems. I would need to actual jet, psycho, or mentats to make something new, but trying to make those chems from scratch is not only messy, but dangerous even if everything goes right. Just being around the chems can have some bad after effects; Yellow skin, rotting teeth, hair lost, and premature aging symptoms, and that's if you're just making it. Womack was right about he said they have no place in a military organization. Alcohol on the other hand can come from anywhere, even wasteland desert fruits.

"What's the point of you telling me all this Maxson, I wanted to know about the how you killed the Deathclaw and how you got that scar on your face." Nicholls complained.

Well I told him I didn't actually kill the Deathclaw, and I got the scar I got from child sex slave traffickers.

Nicholls was quite for a few seconds, "What were you doing with a child sex slave trafficker, and how many times have you been raped?"

Wagner punched Nicholls his arm, "Fucking prick!" he shouted, "Keep your fucking mouth shut. Go on Maxson you were making alcohol right, what happened after that?"

So, I was making it for myself for a while in the kitchen, but as you might have guessed I got caught, and as you also as you might have guessed the people in the bunkers started drinking it. After a while I didn't need to be secretive about it, but the Brotherhood of Steel needed explosives for their missions and that why I start leaving the underground bunkers. Usually under the privacy of one or two soldiers in power armor. On top of the explosives I was making, I was also asked to make chems as well, chems lead to abusiveness, selfishness, and tweaked out soldiers that were not fit to serve. I didn't always have the supplies I needed and a lot of soldiers started asking me to make chems from scratch. I did what I could, but it wasn't what they wanted. So, one day someone slapped a pile of Brahmin shit on the chemistry set and told me to make some jet. When I told him, I needed more equipment and he just asked louder, I convinced him that I could make it over a pot and an open flame but he would need to take off his helmet and breath in the chems if he wanted to get the high. I poisoned him, he huffed and puffed and coughed until he passed out. That's when I took my chance and I didn't plan on returning. I mean I knew how to survive in the wasteland, move quietly, hunt, kill wasteland animals, and I could speak enough raider slang to get to him or her or them to stop shooting.

Wagner laughed, "Like what, like if a raider was shooting you what would you say?" He asked.

I'd say, 'Ooh, I ain't got nuthin' on me.' (I said this with a English accent) And he might say something like, 'You avin' a bubble?' meaning 'are you joking' and then you'd say, "You mugging me on?" , 'are you robbing me' and he might say, 'Aye, Bees and unney now,' which mean yes he or she is robbing you, and you say, "I got a right moody boat, you wanna dry slap?" He or she might shake your hand or tell you, "Fuck off, mate."

"Wow that's colorful." Wagner laughed.

Well not all raiders talk like that, some of them are truly crazy and will spout out nonsense and will run up to you like a rabid dog, simply because they like killing, but those kinds of raiders usually don't even know how to reload their weapons.

"Do you know how to fight, Maxson?" Wagner asked.

I told him some of the Brotherhood of Steel members have tried to teach me martial arts, but to be honest it seemed like a waste of time. Rocks, sand, any blade, or blunt weapon is a lot more practical. Orc-face, a raider, knew how to wield blades with this kind of finesse that he showed me, I've found it useful in the past.

"This is fucking bullshit!" Nicholls shouted.

"Jeeze Nicholls, Womack and Kells are still sleeping. Keep your voice down." Wagner whispered.

"Seriously Maxson," Nicholls was keeping his voice down but in an angry tone, "Raiders are not good people and there not your people. Aren't you at least a little bit grateful that the Brotherhood of Steel has protected you all these years, fed you, gave you a bed, and protected you from rads."

"I'm sorry," I told him. "I wasn't trying to appear ungrateful. I am grateful."

"Don't be angry at him Maxson. This is the most Nicholls has ever traveled before, he always been kind of a shut in at bunker 72." Wagner explained.

"I wasn't a fucking shut in, I was mechanic and an apprentice engineer. I had friends, they just weren't soldiers, when your weapons and power armor were broken I fixed them and got them working like new. That's what I tried to do today, fix the problem, so things would go back to normal." Nicholls explained. "I haven't fired my weapon since basic training, now I'm killing women, children, and men with swords and spears."

"I'm in the same boat you are Nicholls, I was a computer tech, you think I don't miss my job in the garrison? We made it out, were alive, and we have a mission."

"I don't have my weapon anymore." Nicholls looked over at me, "The Brotherhood of Steel has betrayed me, no, all of us. What's going to stop Maxson from turn coating to the Legion side?"

I didn't say anything at the time, I have no plans of betraying the Brotherhood of Steel. No, I will not betray this squad of five people, but I knew how Nicholls felt and I couldn't be mad at him. He turned to the side with his back turned away from us. I stirred the fire and threw another log into it. "So, what happened to you after you got away." Wagner asked.

"The worlds pretty fucked up, you know?" I said avoiding the question.

"Well I guess you would know, you've seen more of it then I have." Wagner stated,

"The raiders in Washington DC are really fucked up, when I was in North Carolina a friend of mine, Pigeon, a raider as well, said that he came from there. Said they would string you up with meat hooks if you didn't pull you weight and that's if they didn't like you. They did that so they could drink your blood to keep themselves from dehydrating because they didn't have the medical supplies to remove radiation from their bloodstream. Pigeon was all for going back to Washington and making things right or better." I explained.

"Did you actually see that, when you were twelve?" Wagner asked.

"No, I didn't, I was ten at the time, and when I was there I only saw Super Mutants and feral ghouls, but I don't think he was lying, he was… a good leader." I reminisced.

"You know Maxson, you sometimes act like they were the only friends you had."

I smiled, "I think I'm glad to be here because it feels like I have a fighting chance again, with friends. I have always felt like the Brotherhood of Steel was holding me back, but it's been my safety net."

I continued with my story. In the Wasteland, it is easy to find food, but water is extremely hard to come by and I remembered what Pigeon told me that you can drink blood to keep yourself hydrated. Birds are the first thing you want to hunt then looking for blood to drink, they are almost completely radiation free, next are land animals but are usually riddled with radiation, and last are people and only a teaspoon at the most, and if you drink more than that you better start digging. Find some kind of living plant, uproot it, and start digging you will most likely find non-radiated water under the ground but it's not easy to dig that deep with just your hands or with a buttstock. I lived like that for five days I and saw all kinds of critters and bugs there by myself, but I didn't know where I was going, I just had to survive. When I was digging I found this odd shaped rock is was black with bits of sparkle that reflexed in the sun. I thought it was a jewel or geo but there was water inside. It was really hard but I thought I would need a hammer and nail if I wanted to drink what was inside. If I broke it I would lose some of the water or break a container that could hold more water. I found a little bit of water at the bottom of that hole I dug so I put the rock in the duffle bag I was carrying round and tried to drink with my hands. At the time, most of my body was covered in dirt but it was only a matter of time before I found another person that didn't want to kill me.

I was happy at the time he had one of those Brahmin packs and two body guards with him and he asked me what I was doing. I was desperate at the time, maybe even homesick, I wanted to go back to the Brotherhood of Steel I told him that I was Arthur Maxson of the Brotherhood of Steel and that my team was attacked.

He said there were Deathclaws in the area and I needed to come with him, he gave me some purified water and it was the most refreshing water I've ever tasted. He also had pre-war food, Cram and Sugar Bombs. I only had a few bits of insect meat and wild fruits, he didn't want to take them, and he said he knew a place I start working, maybe even find my family. Well I already told Wagner how I got this scar, when we got to this encampment I wasn't the only child there and there was an obvious preference of young boys and an unsavory reputation to this place. There were only a few people that looked like raiders, a lot of them looked like soldiers, merchants, and traders, but they all had an obvious preference for young boys. When I came in I could hear the sound children crying. When I came into the checkpoint with the three people and the Brahmin pack I was put in hand cuffs and about to be sold. They said I was too old and dirty, me at 14. The children I saw waiting outside of large tents were wearing long t-shirts that covered most of their body from the neck to knee, but walked around the hard desert sand barefooted, if they weren't crying outside their tents holding on to their legs, they had blank faces, eyes vacant and lifeless, filled with fear, and I felt a chill rundown my spine as I walked pasted by. I was sold for 200 caps, I told them, "Wait a second, he didn't tell you who I was!"

The one who brought me slapped me in face so hold it made me fall over on my hands, pain was radiating as I felt the area swelled up. "If wanted you to talk I would put my hand up your ass and move you face like a puppet!" He yelled, but I got back up.

"My name is Arthur Maxson the only surviving heir of Roger Maxson, the founder of the Brotherhood of Steel." I stated.

The man who bought me pulled out his M9 and pointed it at me, "In the tent." He said in a low voice. "You are nothing, but I think once you've cleaned up I'll have you myself. Now get in the tent and clean yourself up."

"Listen to me, the Brotherhood of Steel will pay ten times what you paid, but if you soil me, they will kill you when I tell them what you did." I explained.

"Three days. In three days, I will need 12,000 caps, that how much this place makes in a year, can your Brotherhood of Steel match that?" My buyer asked.

One of the body guards stepped forward, "Hey you might not want to mess with this kid if he's telling the truth. The Brothers of Steel are those cats you see roaming the Wasteland in full power armor, very dangerous, and very hard to kill."

"Will they have the caps to pay a ransom?" My buyer asked.

"Personally, I've never traded with them so I don't know, but if Butch has seen them before this kid if probably not lying about the second part." The man who pick me up stated.

So, from there they cleaned me up and took me to a lady named Mary Frances. Those two body guards that came with me to the encampment held me down on a tattoo chair and marked me with a dull blade. I scream, I struggled, they said they were doing me a favor, I fought as the blade went in and cut into the gums of the inside of my mouth and teeth. They said that no cliental would try to violate me while I was on their base, but I wasn't the only one with this scar. They had a doctor there to stitch me up, he said when a child become riddled with disease that this is how they marked them. They were put to work and but they usually die for infection from the cut, whatever beatings cliental felt they could get from the kids, or the disease that got them marked in the first place would kill them. I asked the doctor, "Did you ever think about doing anything to stop this."

He put a bandage over put of my face told to leave his office, from there they gave me a broom, a spray bottle with water and cleaning detergent, and torn rags. They took away my jumpsuit, shaved my head, and gave me one of the long white t-shirts with a painted red X on it. I worked for most of the day and I got beat up for using all the spray bottle before the day was out. They said I needed to make it last, I went to a tent with a whole bunch of other marked kids laying on pre-war army cots. They were sick, coughing, but most of them were just as fearful as the ones that were being violated, but there was one that looked at me, "Hey you're that older kid they brought in this morning, right? What's your name?"

"It's Arthur." I said holding onto the cut on the side of my face.

"You shouldn't try to talk too much, when you start working again try to spray down the cut it will keep it from getting red." The child explained.

I tried to make some gestures with my hands he said, "My name is Beretta, my mom said that these people were going to watch me for a while, but then they said I had to work." Beretta put his arms around his legs, "Once my mom comes back I'll tell her what they really made me do, and then she'll kill them." He looked over at me. "Do you have a mom that might be worried?"

I nodded my head. The kid still had some hope, but raiders are known for naming their kids after things that were around when they were born. He was named after a gun or cheese.

"Hey, doesn't this belong to you." He held up the duffle bag, "They were going to throw it away, but I saw that you were carrying it when you came in. I'm sorry but I ate most of the food that was there."

I shook my head to tell him it was okay. I looked in the bag and the large black jewel like stone was in there but it was moving. I grabbed it out of the bag and Beretta looked at it as it was moving around, "You need to get this out of here or the grownups will take it away."

I held the side of my face with my shoulder, "I need to bury it."

"That's good idea they never find it if you climb up the cliff." The encampment was closed off by three walls of improvised barricades and a cliff covering the back I climbed up with this egg in my duffle bag. Once I got to the top I dug a hole a few inches deep, when I put it in the ground a small part of the egg cracked open and there was this tiny yellow glowing eye coming from the egg and it made some kind of noise, like a cat. I barely hear it at the time but something definitely heard it from far away, it was something like a lion's roar and I felt the sound go through my body as it was getting closer. The thing inside the egg made a hiss inside of its egg and I heard something that sounded like thunder and a pride of lions. I sat there from the top of that cliff as four Deathclaws broke into the barricade and tore into the child brothel. The guards that were there didn't have weapons that could deal with Deathclaws. Then the cliental starting running away they were the first ones to go, predators will always go after the one that runs off alone. It gave the men with the guns a chance to reload and start firing back, some children were crushed under the deathclaws talons but the adults were torn apart as some of them fought but most of them ran. The guards took all four of them down as the Deathclaws were distracted enough to go after the people that acted like prey, and not go after the ones with the guns, but I knew what I had here a baby deathclaw, I named him Merlin. I left it there and came down the cliffs, the one who bought me was still alive unfortunately, "What the hell I were you doing up there?!" He demanded.

I said came out to look for food, but when I heard them coming I ran up the side of the cliff. He believed that, he said that we needed to go. If people found out what happened here there would be no business, I said, "Did you already send people to bring the Brotherhood here?"

He said, "Yeah, what about it?"

I said, "Well 12,000 caps, I think you said that what my ransom was, there not just going to walk around looking for me with that kind of money on them. If you leave you'll never get that money."

"Boss it would more pay for the damages and we could get a building together and run our business there." One of the guards said.

"How's the merchandise?" He asked the guard.

"Most of the ones that were serving clients died in the attack, but all the kids in the larger tents are still alive."

"Crap, we can't escort that many kids without people getting suspicious. I guess were stuck, tell the night crew to turn everyone away at the first check point, people can't see what happen here. Get some sleep and we start moving out these Deathclaw corpses first thing the morning. You too kid." He said to me.

I did what I was told, but I took the tent that was for clients, it was a comfortable bed at the time, but I took it because it was the tent closet to the place I buried the Deathclaw egg and the next morning I could hear the cat like scream it from the top of the cliff. I woke up suddenly without any thought or regard and climbed up the cliff. I heard some of the guards say where that kid going? When I got to where he was there was big bark scorpion attacking the baby deathclaw I took my barefoot and started stomping on it and it put its stinger into my leg. I pulled it out and tore off its stinger it, it dead but I could feel it's poison making me sick to me stomach. I looked at the yellow and brown deathclaw, he looked at me with a scared look in his big yellow eyes it fled away from me cornered and scared, making startled squealing noises. He was mostly yellow while his horns and claws were brown, he had this beak like face and big nostrils to smell. His red blood was on the sand and it arm looked injured from the claws of the bark scorpion. I looked at it and completely forgot that I was just stung by the same bark scorpion, I looked at him and got closer trying to tell him that I wasn't there to hurt him, and slowly put my fingers toward its face. It's expression change to scared to an almost curious panic as he put his face toward my hand to smell it. I picked him up touched his injured and arm, and he let of a loud cry, and just like before something was coming. I could feel the stomps this time and then the roar, to say the least the people down below knew what was coming, they were trying to get a head start before she came. I saw it in the distance it was bigger that all the other four that came at the night, the man that brought me looked up at me from the bottom of the cliff and saw I was holding something, "What the fuck did you bring here!?" he yelled and took a shot at me with his M9, but he missed.

There weren't that many people for the this Deathclaw to kill, but Merlin the Deathclaw made another cry and she stop and looked right at me. In a flash, she climbed up the cliff grabbing me with her huge hand pulled out the claws from her other hand. I heard Merlin make another cry and suddenly, she brought me close to her, smelled the scar on my face, and my leg that hand gotten stung. She licked the sting and I felt the poison start to reside, then licked the side on my face that had the scar, and then she put me down. I gave her Merlin, and put the small Deathclaw in her huge hands, she looked happy as she licked his whole body, she turned away from me, and looked back at me one more time. That then they fired.

"Who?" Wagner asked.

The Brotherhood of Steel, all that laser fire and she fell backward on the cliff on her back holding on to her baby. I ran down there to see if I could save Merlin, I picked him up and ran, but like always they caught me, and shocked me with something. When I woke up I was being carried by a guy in power armor and they were escorting a lot of those kids that were in the brothel. I talked to Beretta later when we were all in the Brotherhood of Steel base, he said that they didn't kill the baby deathclaw because they couldn't find, but I'm not happy about what happen to Merlin and his mother, but that day the Brotherhood of Steel saved a lot of kids, but once again, another story was fabricated about me and about how I got this scar.

"That's still something, it's not every day I hear a believable story about someone making friends with two deathclaws." Wagner stated.

I told him that I still needed to write this down and the conversations during the story as well, he said, he would try to get Womack to let me get another hour of sleep.


End file.
